


America and Elsewhere

by misura



Category: Five Fists of Science
Genre: Alternate History, Community: 1sentence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 10:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>50 sentences about Twain and Tesla.</p>
            </blockquote>





	America and Elsewhere

01 - _Motion_

While Twain keeps talking animatedly, Tesla sits quietly and watches, motionless.

02 - _Cool_

Tesla is usually cool and collected in public, reserving his heat and passion for the privacy of his lab and (occasionally) a bedroom. 

03 - _Young_

As long as he can feel this sort of love, Twain knows himself to still be a young man, with all of a young man's faults and many of his vices.

04 - _Last_

Neither of them ever pretend this new project they start on will be their last.

05 - _Wrong_

"There may have been a slight error in Tim's notations," is the closest Tesla comes to admitting he's wrong; Twain lets him get away with it happily enough, since it's a lot closer than he knows he ever gets himself.

06 - _Gentle_

Tesla is gentle, in his own way; he never wrongs a man or woman who has not wronged him first, but he's got a very thin skin and a rather quick temper - Twain sits by, listens, smiles when Tesla is deservedly cutting and soothes when Tesla is unintentionally rude.

07 - _One_

"Because I already built one," Tesla says, infuriatingly, when Twain proposes they build another giant metal man. 

08 - _Thousand_

"Imagine what you could do with an army of these things," Tim says, shiny-eyed, while Tesla frowns and Twain grins, because he knows it will never happen.

09 - _King_

"But why not do away with kings and emperors entirely?" Tesla asks, while Bertha stares at him in astonishment and Twain guffaws.

10 - _Learn_

Tesla learns showmanship from Twain, and Twain learns patience from Tesla's inability to be rushed into anything not involving science.

11 - _Blur_

It's slightly unsettling how, when Twain starts talking, all other sounds and sights turn into a bit of a blur, less important, less attractive and less interesting. 

12 - _Wait_

A lesser man, Twain thinks, might feel intimidated at finding out someone's been waiting to make your acuquaintance since they were twelve and read your books on their sickbed. 

13 - _Change_

"Chemics is not my field," Tesla says seriously and a bit apologetically, when Twain kids about turning lead into gold.

14 - _Command_

Surprisingly, it's Marconi who figures out a way to make the metal man move without a human also moving in the suit - it's an astonishingly simple theory, Tesla tells Twain with a certain amount of chagrin, while Marconi modestly helps himself to another six cookies.

15 - _Hold_

For a man who dislikes being touched, being held holds little appeal - for Twain's sake, Tesla tries to put up with it, but then Twain tells him to stop being an idiot and so the next time they sleep in the same bed, Tesla simply pushes Twain to the side, falls asleep peacefully, and wakes up with his arms firmly around a rather amused Twain.

16 - _Need_

Tesla becomes a hero because the world needs him to; Twain becomes one because he needs to feel needed (or admired, at the very least).

17 - _Vision_

Projecting images is easy enough, but reversing the process, so that they can look at other places without being there, is a much trickier thing to figure out. 

18 - _Attention_

It still annoys Tesla when Twain's attention wanders from what Tesla is saying to what Tesla is doing - he sees no reason to stop trying to explain Einstein's relativity theory (and its flaws) simply because they're both naked, but Twain, clearly, is of a different opinion.

19 - _Soul_

"My soul is in my books, and I hope they'll give a lot of people a good laugh long after I'm dead."

20 - _Picture_

Tesla carries a picture of Twain in his copy of _Tom Sawyer_ ; Twain carries a picture of Tesla in his mind, where it will always look exactly the same age as the real Tesla.

21 - _Fool_

Twain is hopeless with money, but quite good at getting it - Tesla is good at holding on to what he's got (provided he doesn't get sued by the City of New York) but rather poor at convincing people to give him any.

22 - _Mad_

"The difference between madness and genius is that the first is what people I don't like suffer from and the second is what people I do like (including, I should add, myself) revel in."

23 - _Child_

"My dear Bertha," Twain says, wounded, "I do think Mark is a very good name," to which she replies, "For a girl?"

24 - _Now_

Tesla is never not involved in some project, and Twain is hardly ever not thinking about his next book or article, but somehow, in between the looking and planning ahead, they snatch a few moments to enjoy the present.

25 - _Shadow_

It takes Twain a while to get Tim away from Tesla, get him to do the sort of stuff Twain feels boys Tim's age should get up to - Tesla complains about it, of course, but Twain knows a job that needs doing when he sees one.

26 - _Goodbye_

They shake hands in public, which to Tesla is the same as a full-body hug, so Twain boards his ship with a wide grin on his face and a lightness to his steps that carries him all the way to his (cold and lonely) cabin.

27 - _Hide_

When Tesla gets upset, he grabs a good book and goes to hide in a corner of his lab.

28 - _Fortune_

Twain sees money as money, while Tesla views money as a way of getting things one needs for science; it's annoying and a little bit unpleasant, but sadly something one needs to bother oneself with.

29 - _Safe_

Tesla's secrets and theories are safe with Twain, if only because Twain lacks the education that would have enabled him to understand them.

30 - _Ghost_

After a month of projecting the image of a woman in white wandering the house, Twain is amazed and more than a little disappointed to discover the rent for the place has doubled rather than halved, haunted laboratories being, apparently, much in demand by the madder sort of scientist.

31 - _Book_

Tesla has been sleeping with Twain's books for years now; sleeping with the man who wrote them doesn't seem like that big a change (it just becomes a bit harder to bookmark the pages so that he can read things back the next morning).

32 - _Eye_

When Twain finds himself doodling a silly bit of poetry about Tesla's eyes (among other things), he reckons it's time to review another one of those so-called literary classics.

33 - _Never_

Tesla knows some of his theories may never be proven in his lifetime, but he also knows that given enough time, they will all turn out to be true; unlike books, theories can afford to wait for their proper time to be celebrated as genius.

34 - _Sing_

Getting Tesla to have dinner with him is nothing compared to getting Tesla to join him for a few songs behind the piano, although both are equally rewarding.

35 - _Sudden_

The truth is that neither of them planned for that first kiss; the story they tell others, of course, is that they've plotted and schemed to bring it about for weeks, if not months, and with the other wholly oblivious of both plan and attraction.

36 - _Stop_

"Not now," Tesla says, not even looking up from his work and Twain keeps his hands to himself, sighs, and tells himself that 'not now' at least implies 'later'.

37 - _Time_

Twain generally measures time in days or even weeks; Tesla in seconds, minutes, and (rarely) hours. 

38 - _Wash_

Eventually, Twain decides to save himself some time and simply joins Tesla when he's bathing or primping or making all sorts of efforts to look impeccable when they both know the effect will be undone in less than fifteen minutes.

39 - _Torn_

When Tesla comes close to tearing up his blueprints and notes in a fit of frustration-fueled rage, Tim runs off to get Twain to talk him out of it.

40 - _History_

Twain writes much and often; history, he hopes, will filter out his masterpieces from his lesser works, even if the present public seem utterly unable to know a good book by (the name on) its cover, much like they as often as not fail to differ between the genius of Tesla and the shenanigans of Edison.

41 - _Power_

Tesla knows how to harness the power of lightning, but when it comes to exerting any kind of influence over Twain, he finds himself at an utter loss (and this, he thinks, is why he's never loved before; the degree of control is simply too small to be comfortable with).

42 - _Bother_

"It's not a burden to be famous so long as one is also rich and well-liked," Twain declares, while Tesla scowls and glowers at his plate.

43 - _God_

Twain pictures Tesla's God as a giant machine that's merrily whirring away up in Heaven and lets people get on with doing whatever they want to do - there's worse things to worship or swear by, he supposes, even if he can't imagine clearing the air (and his mood) by tossing out a few _'great eternal dynamo!'_ s.

44 - _Wall_

Bertha's face is inscrutable at breakfast the next morning, which doesn't keep Tesla from blushing or Twain from cheerfully pretending nothing out of the ordinary has taken place in the hotel room next to hers on the night before.

45 - _Naked_

"Does the fact that you're measuring it with your eyes mean you'll be putting it in your mouth?" Twain asks, half-jokingly and half-hopeful.

46 - _Drive_

Twain reminds them both to sleep; Tesla makes sure they regularly eat a meal.

47 - _Harm_

Tesla earns himself a black eye getting into a fight with a literary critic; Twain jokes about the matter in public, and shows his appreciation in the form of a sack of ice in private.

48 - _Precious_

Tesla's most prized possession has always been a set of books he got as a child, even if by now, he owns at least six copies of _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.

49 - _Hunger_

It's good to have simpler desires than fame and riches, Twain thinks; there's nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, but every now and then, one likes to feel content with what life has brought already.

50 - _Believe_

"To believe yourself brave is to be brave, but to believe yourself a genius is to be arrogant - unless, of course, you're right, as would be the case for you and me."


End file.
